CHAPTER IX

THE BIG NJEGO BECOMES A MAN-EATER

Now we will only follow the big njego, having lost track of his mate. He was in a pitiful state, and mad with starvation. It happened one day that he saw a spring where human beings came every day to get water. He scented their footprints, and his appetite then seemed to increase tenfold. He followed the scent, which led him to their village, and as he came near the scent seemed to him the most delicious and appetizing aroma he had ever smelled.

“I have never dared,” said he, “to attack human beings before. I have always kept shy of them. But I am famished, and the country contains no prey, so that I shall die of starvation unless I eat one of them. So I must not be afraid.”

The village was fenced, and that first night he did not dare to leap over the fence, for he was timid in spite of what he had said to himself. Toward morning he hid in a thick part of the jungle close by the spring, and went to sleep on a cross branch of a tree. He was so hungry that after sunset he descended the tree, and lay in wait near the path leading to the spring, waiting for a human being to come. It was almost dark, and all the people had come to the spring to get water but one.

The njego’s quick ear soon heard footsteps coming, and presently he saw a woman with a big water jar on her head walking in the path toward the spring. He watched her. While she was bending over the water, filling her jug, he made a tremendous leap and landed on her back, fastening his claws in her body, at the same time that his big jaws with their terrible teeth sank into her back.

The poor woman was so paralyzed by fear that she did not utter a single cry. The leopard carried her into the jungle and devoured her. The flesh of the woman tasted so good, and the blood he licked was so sweet, that the njego thought it was better than all the kambis or anything else he had ever eaten in his life before, and he said to himself: “Why did I not dare to kill human beings before! They are harmless. This one did not fight. What a fool I have been!”

From that day the big njego was a man-eater. Soon after, a man who had gone into the forest for wild honey happened to pass near where the njego was, and he also was attacked and devoured. The njego became the terror of the people of that country.

The human beings, missing their fellows, went in search of them, and saw in one place the big footprints of the njego, and blood in another, and knew that a njego had turned into a “man-eater,” and was in the neighborhood, and had carried off their missing ones. There was great sorrow among the villagers at this discovery, for they thought more of them would be slain and devoured.

[Illustration: “_He watched her_”]

From that time on they never went alone into the forest or to the spring, and were always armed with spears or poisonous arrows. At night they kept many fires burning in the street, and consoled themselves by saying, “No matter how hungry a njego may be, he is afraid of fire.” They also danced all night and beat their tom-toms.

During that time the njego kept far out of the way in the jungle. But he thought all the time of the flesh of the human beings he had eaten, and said, “I will watch my opportunity.”

The villagers, after a while, thought the man-eater had been scared away and had left the country, and that he would never come back. So they stopped dancing every night, and went to sleep without any fear of the njego.

But, in the course of time, the njego returned. One night he walked toward the village, and, coming to the fence, turned around it, hoping to see some openings through which he could get. But he saw none. Then he leaped over the palings, falling so lightly that no one heard him. Noiselessly he passed through the dark street, his eyes looking everywhere, in search of prey. He listened to everything, and was very cautious and somewhat timid, for he had never entered a village of human beings before.

He scented human beings in every house; but the houses had doors, and these were all closed. The village was composed of a single street with houses on both sides. So he went in the rear of the houses and walked by them, but saw no openings to get in.

Finally he came to a goat-house; but there was no way for him to enter, for the house had been especially built to protect the goats against njegos. So, after walking several times around it, and saying to himself, “How I like goats!” he retreated, and soon after he leaped over the fence and went back into the jungle, and slept on a huge branch of a tree.

But he was thinking all the time of the flesh of the human beings he had eaten, and the following night he went again to the village and examined carefully every spot; but he was still very timid, for everything was yet very strange to him. He lingered much longer than on the first night, and walked several times the length of the street and back of the houses, scenting human beings everywhere, which gave him a tremendous appetite.

He remained uncertain what to do; but he had come to the conclusion that the roofs were the weakest parts of the houses. However, that night again he leaped back over the fence, went into the jungle, and slept on the same tree that he had slept on since he had first come to the village.

The next night there was a great thunderstorm, with terrible lightning, and the rain fell in torrents. The njego said: “This is good weather for me. I will enter the village of the human beings, and carry away one of them for a meal.” He waited as usual until the night was somewhat advanced, and then thought it was time for him to leave his place. He came down the tree and directed his steps toward the village.

When he came in sight of the fence, he listened, but could only hear the heavy rain falling on the roofs of the houses. He heard no voices of the human beings, but his scent told him that many were there.

Then he said to himself: “They are sleeping, just as the men of the woods, the monkeys, and other animals of the forest do, during the night, and now is the time when I can pounce upon them.” The scent of human beings gave him courage, for he was famished and had become desperately ferocious from hunger. He walked slowly and silently in the middle of the street, looking here and there, his eyes shining like fire. At last he stopped before a house in which people were asleep, and thought for a while. Then, as quick as a swooping guanionien, he made a tremendous bound, landed in the middle of the palm-thatched roof, plunged through it and seized one of the inmates (a young girl), and in the twinkling of an eye he had sprung back through the hole he had made going into the house, with his prey in his mouth, made another spring, which landed him outside of the fence, and carried off his victim into the forest.

The njego had been so quick that the inmates of the house had hardly time to realize the great misfortune that had happened to them. They saw blood and the hole through the roof. Then they knew that the man-eater had been there and had carried off one of their people.

At their cries of anguish, the whole village awoke, and all the people knew that the man-eater had come back, and swore that they would never rest and be happy again until they had trapped him. They made a trap in the forest, in the shape of a funnel, planting long poles in the ground, close together, and making them fast. The structure was much narrower toward the end, so that it was impossible for the leopard to turn back. At the end was a sort of cage. The top of the trap was also closed with poles made very secure, so that when he went in he could not possibly escape.

When the trap was finished, they brought a goat and put him in the cage. During the night the goat, which was much frightened, cried incessantly. The man-eater heard him, and said, “To-night I will make a meal of that goat.”

When the night was sufficiently advanced, he descended the tree upon which he had slept, and, attracted by the noise of the goat, went toward the trap in which it was imprisoned.

Now though the njegos are very clever in getting prey, they are otherwise very stupid, and can easily be deceived.

So the njego went round the trap, and tried several times to reach the goat by putting his big paws inside; but the sticks were made so secure that he could not do it. He had never seen in the forest anything like the trap, and suspected that all might not be right about it. But at last his hunger got the better of him, and he entered the funnel, and walked towards the goat, which cried louder than before, it was so frightened. At first the njego had plenty of room, but, as he advanced farther and farther, he found it more difficult to move forward on account of the narrowness of the space. Then he touched a spring, and a trap-door fell behind him. At the noise the trap-door made in falling, the njego became frightened and tried to escape; but he found himself so tightly held that he could neither move forward nor backward. Then he became furious, and uttered terrific yells of rage in quick succession.

There was great joy among the people in the village when they heard the cries of the njego, for they knew he was trapped. In the morning they went to the trap and saw the njego making frantic efforts to get away; but the structure had been built so strongly that it was impossible for him to break through.

His yells of rage became terrific and filled the forest with their din. The people shouted to him: “Ah, ah, you ferocious and terrible creature, you njego man-eater! You have eaten enough kambis and ncheris and other animals which we would have killed and eaten ourselves, if it had not been for you, and you have also eaten our people. Now it is all over with you. You will eat no more. No one will be afraid of you hereafter.”

Then they passed their spears through the openings between the sticks and pierced him to death. After they were sure the njego was dead, they broke up the trap, and took his body out, and brought it to the village and laid it in the middle of the street, and the villagers, looking at it, shouted: “You wicked creature, you will eat no more of our people! No kambi or ncheri will ever be eaten by you again. We all hate you. We hate you more than any other animal of the forest.”

They broke his jaws, and took away his teeth for a necklace, and skinned him to make belts of his hide, and cut off his tail for a charm, and ate his liver to give them courage.